Blessings of the Sun and the Moon
by Thesseli
Summary: The last words Runas remembered speaking came back to him now, as if from a distance.


" _Can you hear me, my friend? I…I cannot see you anymore. I think…perhaps it is time to say goodbye, then. Thank you, my friend, for letting my last few hours mean something."_

These were the last words he remembered speaking, and they came back to him now as if from a distance. He stirred, twitching a few times before opening his eyes.

A kindly face with pale blue skin and softly glowing eyes came into view. "It is good that you are awake, Runas. How are you feeling?"

The Nightfallen had to clear his throat before speaking...he felt like he hadn't used his voice for years. "I'm…fine," he replied, much to his surprise. For the constant gnawing, maddening hunger was gone.

He raised himself to his elbows and looked around. He appeared to be in some kind of hospital ward, with multiple beds containing other Nightfallen elves arranged around the outside of the room. Near many of them were chairs and benches with seated, healthy Nightborne at their sides.

"Where am I?" he asked. "What happened?"

"You are in one of the infirmaries that have been set up to treat the Withered," the draenei said. "You are among the first group to be brought in. But there will be many more with time."

Runas couldn't contain his shock. "We have access to the Nightwell again?" It was the only explanation for how he could be here, apparently in his right mind once more.

"No. Unfortunately, Suramar is still an occupied city."

"Then how…?"

"We have something even better than the Nightwell," a young human man replied, as he came forward to stand next to the draenei. He held up a small vial of shimmering liquid that glittered when the light struck the glass. "This will attune any Nightborne, Nightfallen, or Withered to energies that will compensate for the loss of the Nightwell. You no longer need access to it to survive."

Runas stared at the innocuous-looking vial in wonder. "How is this possible?"

"There is an old friend of yours here…she should probably be the one to explain it, since she was instrumental in its development. She was also quite insistent that you be among the first of the Withered treated. I will fetch her; you stay in bed, you are still recovering and in no shape to go wandering about while you can barely stand. Calandris, make sure he doesn't try to get up," she said, then left through the wide corridor that led out of the ward.

Runas watched her go. Apart from their coloring, the draenei looked disconcertingly like the eredar that had come to infest his city before he was exiled. But he would not let something so petty as appearance prejudice him against this…priest? Paladin? He wasn't sure. He also had no idea who he might have known from before who would still be concerned for him. Most of his friends and family had been exiled as well; who knew if any of them still lived?

"How did anyone know who I was, when I couldn't even remember my own name?" he asked the human mage – and he was most definitely a mage, there was a time the mana Runas could sense flowing under the man's skin would have made his mouth water. "How did I even survive?"

"Our mutual friend made sure you were cared for, and that no harm came to you."

He rubbed his forehead. "I'm surprised the dragons didn't kill me."

"The dragons were the ones who took care of you," replied the mage.

Runas raised an eyebrow at him curiously, but before he could ask for more information he heard the sound of footsteps approaching. The draenei reappeared in the foyer, accompanied by a most familiar face.

The blood elf stepped forward, her hand at her mouth. "Runas?" she asked, her blue eyes wide. "Runas, is that really you?"

He nodded, moving to sit up. "I told you to stay in bed," commanded the draenei. She glanced down at the woman beside her; she positively towered over the much smaller elf. "You, go hug him. Now."

"Yes ma'am," she said, her obvious joy nearly covering the sarcasm in her voice as she strode forward to do as the draenei had said.

"Thank you, Deathlord," the priest retorted, but she was smiling too.

"Arrelon. It is good to see you again, my friend," said Runas, returning her embrace, hearing the tremor in his voice and not caring one bit. "I understand I have you to thank for my survival, and for my presence here today."

"I did what anyone else would have," she insisted, but Runas shook his head.

"No. You did more." He gazed at her somberly, as she settled back on a chair at his bedside. "My own people allowed us to be cast out, left to Wither and die. You are an outsider, and you cared more than mine ever did. You stayed with me until the very end."

"I didn't want to leave you," she replied sadly. "But after it was over, I spoke to Senegos and Stellagosa and the other dragons. I told them what you'd done for them, and they agreed to keep you safe. So when a cure for your condition was developed, I wanted you to be one of the first to receive it."

Runas laid back against the pillows, feeling somewhat overwhelmed. "People really didn't give up on us?" he asked. It sounded too good to be true.

"They didn't," stated Calandris. "Just like they didn't give up on my people either, when most of us were afflicted by the worgen curse. They could have easily turned their backs and let us live as mindless animals for the rest of our lives, spreading the affliction to any human we'd bitten, but they didn't. That's why instead of feral worgen, the people of Gilneas are a nation again."

"I know what it's like, to crave something your body and mind have become dependent upon," Arrelon said softly. "When the Sunwell was destroyed, my people suffered greatly. We'd become dependent on it the same way your people were on the Nightwell, and I was one of the hardest hit. I was very close to losing myself to the madness." She paused. "I remember waking up after being raised as a death knight, and feeling an overwhelming sense of relief when I found that my craving for mana was gone," she confessed. "But once the Sunwell was restored, the blood elves no longer hungered for mana as they did before. It flowed freely outwards into the world, accessible to all my people, no matter where they were."

Runas gazed again at the vial of shimmering liquid the mage had held. "This is a gift from your people? This is Sunwell essence?"

"Partially," he said. "There are also components from the night elves' Moonwells as well. Any Nightfallen or Withered treated with this can draw sustenance from both sources."

"I don't really understand the magic behind it," confessed the death knight. "But it was a joint effort. Without cooperation between the two elven nations, this never would have happened."

"Arrelon helped a lot with that part," Calandris added.

"From what I know of the outside world," Runas began slowly, "that sort of cooperation is uncommon at best."

"Extremely uncommon," said the worgen. "Although in these past few years since we reached the Broken Isles, there have been some changes for the better concerning interfaction relations."

"Runas! It's good to see you up and around!" called a woman's voice from the entrance to the ward.

"He may be up, but he's not to leave this bed until I say so," the priest warned.

Runas couldn't help but stare. "First Arcanist?"

Thalyssra laughed brightly. "Yes. It's good to see you, old friend."

"But…but you look like you used to. Exactly like you used to." The last time he'd seen her she was nearly Withered, but now she looked no different than she had in Suramar City.

"Dyonei, have you not given this poor man a mirror yet?" she asked.

"I was just about to," replied the draenei, passing him a small disk of polished silver. "I simply thought he should have some explanations first."

Runas grasped the disk with trembling hands, staring in amazement at his restored features. He looked like a healthy, normal Nightborne elf again, in face and in form, with no trace of Withering whatsoever. "Arrelon," he whispered. "This is beyond anything I could have ever hoped for. Thank you, there is no way I can ever repay my debt to you—"

"There is nothing to repay," she stated. "You're my friend."

"Still…" No matter her protests, he could not simply forget or dismiss this supreme act of kindness. He would find a way, somehow, to show her his gratitude.

"Our people will learn a valuable lesson from this, once more Nightfallen and Withered have received the cure," said Thalyssra. "It was only through working together – the blood elves and night elves – that a cure for their shared kindred was found. This will show the Nightborne that we should no longer turn away from the outside world, nor should we seek to rule over it, but rather that we should work with the other peoples of Azeroth against the Burning Legion."

"I want to help," Runas declared. "In fact, I insist on helping…once I'm allowed out of bed."

"You should be back on your feet by the end of the day," the draenei promised him.

"I also need to thank Senegos and the rest of the dragons. It couldn't have been easy for them, having me shambling about for…how long was it?"

"Almost two years."

"Two years of my life," he breathed. "Gone in an instant. Oh well…I suppose there's no use in dwelling on that now. It just means I have a lot of lost time to make up for." He took one last look in the mirror, then gazed up at the others in determination. "And I can't wait to get started."


End file.
